Patchwork and lace

Wednesday, 19 October 2011

Hello fellow bloggy friends ,ive much to show and tell this week,starting of course with my lovely evening at the cath kidston shop in york last night for the craft event promoting her new book "patch,the event was advertised in the last cath kidston magazine

I went with my daughter sky, arriving promptly just before six,the queue was already starting to form as we all waited eagerly for the evening ahead

We were offered tea and cakes from a lovely laid out table as we entered the shop by the lovely friendly staff,not the headless model you see in the background

The demonstration was on the enormous red table in the centre of the shop ,this table is enormous and is something i would definately buy if i had the money,i took this picture after everything had been cleared away

There were probably about 40 people there and we were all given a bag with all the kit inside needed to make the suffolk puff cushion

Then the staff in the shop demonstrated how to make the suffolk puffs or yo yos,we were even given a plastic yo yo maker

There was a lovely sweet elderly lady there as one of the demonstators who was an expert at every technique of patchwork and i manages to have a chat with her and we both agreed we prefered the "old fashioned way "of making the suffolk puffs by hand ,she was a lovely ,very talented lady who had made some amazing things to show us

We all set to after the demonstration with our very generous packs of fabric,cotton,needles etc round the table,it was a lovely atmosphere us all sewing together drinking tea,chatting and laughing

There were even a couple of sewing machines if you wanted to sew the back of the cushion

This is what the finished product looks like but as there were i think 90 suffolk puffs to make in total, no one finished it all last night but we were able to take everything in the kit home to finish it off and the first person to completely finish the cushion and take it into the shop would get a voucher to spend

The evening went on for a couple of hours and 15% off everything ,except vintage things so we had a good look round taking pictures along the way

As it was 15% off everything i treated my daughter to a new bag and i bought myself these pretty spotty candles

This gorgeous cake stand

We had a really lovely enjoyable crafty evening especially as my daughter came with me ,its not often it is just the two of us so it made it extra special ,stonegate was very quite as we left and york is so pretty on an evening

We came home happy and inspired and i took some pretty pictures of my new purchases

We have also put our names down for the next few thursday evenings to go back to the cath kidston shop to help make a quilt , we take our own materials this time and over the next few weeks we make up this quilt in our own square sections which will then be joined together and auctioned for charity so were looking forwaed to that starting next week,
My crochet blanket is coming on nicely now im trying to do some every day as i want to put it on my bed as the temperatures have definately dropped now

And im still plodding on with my patchwork throw

As well as this other hexy throw ive started and crochet blanket

As well as patchwork cushions

Ive also been doing a bit of gardening lately too before it gets too cold,i recently bought some tulip and daffodile bulbs which ive been planting around the garden and in pots for hopefully a pretty colourfull display for spring

In my potting area

The last of the apples from our tree

Thankyou to you for your lovely comments i really do love to hear from you and reading your own blogs ,love for now francine x

Friday, 7 October 2011

Hello fellow bloggy friends ,what lovely people you are ,your lovely mesages ,kind words , inspiring blogs ,just to say thankyou for following me
I often wonder what to post about thats interesting to others ,the days seem to always fly by somehow ,i thought once my youngest daughter started full time school i would have hours of free time ,walking the dog ,sewing etc but somehow now i try to cram as much as i can into those child free hours as possible before they all come home and the time just seems to run away ,as much as i love those free hours of no demands ,tidy house ,full fridge ,full cake stand,i do love it when i see the school bus pulling up over the road and in they come,shoes bags,clothes hungry tummies ,listening to their banter some days too much to say other days not much at all,the mess ,the "whats for tea mum "as much as somedays i feel worn down by it all i know that once they have all flown the nest i will crave these days endlessly ...
I would like to say a big thankyou to the dutch girls for my giveaway which i recieved today all nicely wrapped and presented

It was a real treat to recieve something nice through the post so thankyou so much for that x
I met my dear dad today for coffee,he can talk and talk in fact i dont remember actually saying an awful lot , one tale leads onto the next and he is so knowledgable about everything ,my children often ask me questions that i havnt a hope of answering so i now say "ask grandad hele know "and he does hes amazing anyway we met in a local garden centre which was fully stocked with christmas decorations it was like a winter wonderland and as christmas is my favourite time of year i had to do the decent thing and buy something didnt i it was only polite so heres what i bought

A christmas elf ,wooden heart and a felt heart,rather lovely i thought , i have booked a table at the local christmas fair again this year at knaresborough,last year was very successfull so im now fully stocked up on christmas felt,fabrics,ribbons and buttons to start making all my christmas goodies to sell , cant wait, last year it was snowing and the market place was magical , the band was playing christmas music ,shoppers busily buying christmas treats , mulled wine in good supply ,it was really festive so im looking forward to this years market even more
I set to making a festive chair throw last week with some festive homespun fabrics

it started off in stages

It soon started developing

From an origional blanket idea which became so time consuming, and i made loads of mistakes trying to match it all up that i decided to make it into a table runner instead

and here is the finished product

The photo doesnt really do it justice , it has really made me appreciate the amount of time that must go into these really intricute blankets you see around
Ive also been catching up on a spot of scrapbooking this week , this interest stems from my much lovedc and missed late mother who had heaps of scrap books filled with birthday ,anniversary any type of cards really that she liked the look of ,she would sit on an evening with empty scrap books on one side of her and cards waiting to be glued in on the other side, this is where my love of them stems , my interest isnt cards though mine is just lovely images i see in magazines, i cut the pictures out i like then stick them into scrap books , i must have at least ten now

All stored neatly in patchwork files

When i want inspiration or just feel like loking at nice pictures out they all come

The pictures are a mixture of particular items i see i like or of houses , gardens or crafts people have made ,a mixture of all sorts of images that really inspire me

I used to buy a lot of home magazines but to be honest nowadays i find them all really repetetive , uninspiring , full of adverts and really a waste of my hard earned money so i feel with my scrap books i have all i like and want in my own home made magazine file , how wonderful ,i love what i like on every page how good is that !!

My hexy blanket is coming on slowly as is my crochet blanket , next week ive decided to manage my time better ,i love being on my computer browsing through lovely blogs but as my computer seems to be the slowest in the world , really im not kidding , this lovely pasttime actually takes up quite a few hours in a day , we have one computer in our house that we all share which as you can imagine is very difficult and its quite dated and very annoyingly slo...w to say the least so its a want on all of our christmas lists to have a computer each , heres hoping santa will be feeling generous this year , well hope your not too bored ive been warbelling on for seemingly hours now so time to go to bed with a nice hot choc to wash down the wine and the lovely feeling of no school,packups,routine,work and a well earned lie in for us all tomorow , have a lovely weekend ,ours is a good lie in ,full monty breakfast,roast dinner,strickly come dancing,x factor hopefully a massive win on the lottery and my all time favourite programe "Downton abbey,more lovely images for you

Pretty embroidery

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Have a lovely weekend to you all , much love francine xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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About Me

Hello and thankyou for visiting me, i am a mother to my 3 children , i am a hopeless romantic, constant daydreamer,i love Patchwork,Crochet,Vintage shops,Cath kidston,Shabby chic,Painted furniture,Cosy nights in by the fire ,Candlelight, Old black and white movies,walks along the beach,daydreaming,cozy blankets, baggy jumpers,hearts,eating,wine ,tea and i love to make things for my home and to sell, i love life and wish there were more hours in the day to fit everything in that i wanted to do , i really hope you like my blog and i would love to hear from you, love francine x